Wright State learns tourney foe today

Eighth-seeded Raiders to face one of four teams in Tuesday’s road contest.

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By Kyle Nagel, Staff Writer 10:07 PM Friday, February 24, 2012

CLEVELAND — The Wright State men’s basketball team is one of just four in the Horizon League that knows its league tournament fate entering the final day of the regular season.

With four games today, there is plenty of movement to come.

The Raiders will play at Cleveland State at 2 p.m. today knowing they will face a road game on Tuesday in the first round of the Horizon League tournament as the No. 8 seed. Their opponent, the No. 5 seed, could be one of four teams: Butler, Detroit, Wisconsin-Milwaukee or Youngstown State.

All games should end by 6 p.m. today, giving WSU more clarity after the team tries to close its regular season with a victory.

“You’ve seen it in the league, anybody can beat anybody on any given night,” said WSU senior forward Johann Mpondo about traveling for a first-round tournament game. “It doesn’t really matter who we play or where we play. How we play is going to matter.”

The bad news for WSU is that the Raiders went 0-4 in road games this season against the teams in the running for the No. 5 seed, including a 61-54 defeat at Youngstown State on Thursday that locked them into the No. 8 seed. Those also included blowout losses at Detroit (69-53) and Milwaukee (58-38).

For Cleveland State, a win means the No. 2 seed and two byes into the tournament semifinals. The Vikings can finish between seeds 2-4.

Mpondo said the WSU players would likely wait until after today’s game to study the standings and try to determine a first-round opponent (in part because of the number of possibilities). Valparaiso has secured the No. 1 seed and will host at least the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds of the league tournament.

WSU coach Billy Donlon said the Raiders have as good of a chance as anyone of reaching the trip to Valparaiso.

“We’re a team that, if we play a full 40-minute game, we’re a tough out for anybody,” Donlon said.

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